metro >> on the cover

Veggie War Goes 'Viral'

After Internet uproar, Oak Park dismisses charges
against woman with front-yard garden.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

with grass ground cover, shrubbery or other
suitable live plant material." Julie Bass insists
her garden contains "suitable live plant mate-
rial." Oak Park code enforcers disagree.
After a warning, she received a ticket for a
misdemeanor charge that carries a penalty
of up to 93 days in jail. But last week, after an
international Internet uproar that resulted in
thousands of angry emails and calls to city
offices, the charge was suddenly dismissed.
At press time, Bass was still due in court July
26 on additional charges for failing to have
her two dogs licensed.
"Before all of this started, I called the city
to find out if [a front-yard garden] was per-
mitted," Bass explained. "We were never told
not to do it."
A sewer pipe had cracked, requiring
crews to dig up the family's front lawn. They
decided it was too expensive to purchase
sod, so they looked for other solutions and
concluded a vegetable garden was the most
cost-effective solution.
City officials insist Bass was told a garden
would not be allowed on her front lawn
and the ordinance was designed to keep
yards uniform and maintain community
standards. (The ordinance will now likely
be rewritten.) They say the ticket was only
issued after neighbors complained. But, Bass
says she's not convinced any complaint was
ever filed. The wife and mother of six chil-
dren ages 6-23 has continued to nurture her
tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, peas and other
vegetables. She's appeared on countless tele-
vision and radio news programs, including
several national broadcasts, to discuss the
veggie war.
Bass also shares her thoughts, observa-
tions and frustrations in an online blog
called "Oak Park Hates Veggies." She logs in
under the screen name "thegardenrenegade."
One post reads: "This was so accidental, so
unintentional. We just did our little thing
on our little lawn in our little city, and here
we are. We never decided to 'take a stand' or
fight injustice or be held up as an example."
Other entries are humorous or sarcastic;
some contain photos of the growing garden.
On another day, she posted a poem someone
wrote about her plight. In part, it reads: "The
scofflaw, Julie Bass/Rejected trees and grass/
And took to life of crime/With parsley, sage
and thyme':

Internet Frenzy
News of the garden dispute spread like
wildfire on the Internet and Bass quickly

8 Juiy 21 • 2011

Julie Bass, center, with her children Yehoshua, 11, Hadassah, 6, and Devorah, 15, check out their front-yard garden.

became an international celebrity when the
story went viral. Her blog now has tens of
thousands of readers; a Facebook page by
the same name has more than 30,000 fans
(more than Oak Park's population of 29,319).
An online petition urging the city to stop the
prosecution garnered nearly 30,000 signa-

tures. Countless people are also sending the
family money for a legal defense fund.
On July 15, Bass wrote to blog readers,
"We currently have enough money to cover
litigation costs. If things get more ugly and it
looks like we will have to do more, I will post
again to let you know. But, for now, please

don't send any more donations:"
People have been weighing in on the dis-
pute from as far away as Australia.
"Why is it that a government entity can
tell a property owner how to use or not use
their property?" wrote one Facebook fan.
"Do they pay the mortgage? No. Do they pay

